Unknown Brother
--- It was another Sunday afternoon. While the real world was active, the cyber world was just as active. Countless users surfed the web, playing around with their internet counterparts. Amongst those countless users, there he was. He was Ace, one of the greatest internet presences of the decade. A well-known hacker, loved for his witty retorts and his blog, where he exposed famous individuals, such as students from the Obelisk Blue dorm, or even Pro's. However, Ace wasn't here to expose anyone. He had found certain documents that had changed his world. His hands flew over the keyboard, eventually accessing the Duel Academy's dorms. Another flash of his hands and he knew who was online, and soon he found his target. With a simple click of a button, a webpage would pop up on his target's desktop; a private and encrypted chat room with Ace himself. "Shane." Ace typed in. "We need to talk." ---- The rain fell swiftly outside, gently lashing at the windows like a million tiny, watery bullets. Its ever so steady tap, tap, tap was calming, soothing to listen to. He was almost carried off to sleep by the rain's hypnotic syncopation, lying there in his bed with a book in hand. Michael had gone off to spend some quality brother time with Zach, so he had a few hours to himself. Reading was a good way to pass the time, but then he heard his phone go off, alerting him to a message sent over an instant messaging app. It was from a friend back in the city, one he was actually rather glad to hear from. Yawning, he reached for his laptop instead of his phone, since he needed to check on one of his grades anyway. He'd barely hit 'enter' on his reply before another chat window popped up. "We need to talk," it said. Shane's brow furrowed. This was...odd, and rather disconcerting. Pausing, he deliberated over the decision whether or not to message back, before curiosity got the better of him. "Who are you? Why do you want to talk to me?" he typed back, hitting enter when his message was fully composed. ---- "It's Ace." he responded almost instantly. He then sent a document over, it was photoscans of Shane's adoption papers, and the names of his real parents. Then, Ace sent a scan on his birth certificate. If Shane opened them and compared them...he'd be in for a surprise. ---- Ace. Yeah, Shane recognized the online nickname. It belonged to none other than Dexter, someone he still held a serious grudge against. Dexter, after all, had been the one to out him to the entire school a little over a year ago. That wasn't something he was able to forgive easily, and he almost just closed the chat window and set his laptop aside. Before he could, however, the scanned documents appeared on the screen. "Are you trying to fuck with me?" Shane typed back. "How do I know this is real and not some sort of digitally manipulated trick?" He refused to believe he was related to...that. ---- ”Do you think I want to be related to you?” Dexter typed back in. Dexter himself had been disgusted by the whole thing, but in the end, he owed Shane. Ruining his life had been a dick move, and he would never be forgived, but he could try to do something. “Do you want to meet your father?” ---- He supposed that was a good point. Neither of them was fond of either, so it wouldn't make sense for Dexter to fabricate something like this. Shane felt his stomach twist into a painful knot. Whether he wanted one or not, he had a half-brother. Stryker...the last name had always had him wondering... Out of pure frustration, he got up from his bed, throwing his book across the room and letting out a yell. Why? He didn't want to deal with all of this. Shane paced around the room anxiously for a few minutes before he sat back down on his bed and typed out a response. "No. He didn't want me, so I have nothing to say to him." ---- Dexter couldn’t argue with that. Their father wasn’t much except for an abusive drunkard. Dexter decided to try something, trying to apologize. “Hey, I’m sorry for what I did back then. I know it doesn’t change anything, but I want to apologize. I really do. If it’s okay, do you wanna meet up? So I can apologize to you in person?” he quickly typed in. He sent the message and laid back in his chair, waiting anxiously for Shane’s response. ---- The absolute last thing he would've expected from Dexter was an apology, and it caught him off guard. He honestly wasn't sure what to make of it, but he could feel a bit of his anger subsiding. Shane took a deep breath, running his hands through his hair. What the fuck was he supposed to? How was he supposed to react to all of this? Before he could process what he was doing, his fingers had typed out, "Yeah. I'll meet you in the city at the pier where the ferry comes in." He stared at those words for a long moment before he hit enter and closed his laptop, setting it back on his deck. The blonde reached for his favorite black leather jacket and an umbrella, shoving his phone, wallet, and keys into his jacket pocket. Why was he doing this, he asked himself. If he was being honest...he supposed that if he really did have a brother, maybe, just maybe...it wouldn't be a bad idea to try and get along. Maybe part of him was just curious to see what it'd feel like to have actual flesh and blood family. Either way, he left his dorm and opened the umbrella, heading to catch the ferry. Shane couldn't shake the feeling that this could be a bad idea. He sat by himself on the ferry, hood up, not really wanting to talk to anyone. Anxiety was nagging too badly at him. When the boat pulled up, however, there was no mistaking the figure lingering a short distance from the pier. It was him. Shane got off the boat, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking up to him. "Hey." ---- Dexter nodded his greeting. “Hey there...” he responded somewhat awkwardly. Dexter wasn’t the most social person, and he had no idea what two brothers would do on a day off. Maybe Shane would be interested in seeing what made him Ace. “Hey, uh. Do you wanna head to my place? I got food there.” ---- It was somewhat reassuring to know he wasn't the only awkward one in this situation, judging from Dexter's obvious discomfort. "Um, sure. I don't see why not." Now that they were face-to-face again...he could see the resemblance between the two of them. The same pointed chin, chiseled jaw, well-proportioned nose. Even their hair was the same shade of blonde. Really, the biggest difference was their eyes. Shane's were blue, Dexter's were more of a luminous amber. It was almost disconcerting, seeing so many of his own features in another person. He supposed that they must have both looked rather like their father, since they were only half-brothers. ---- Dexter nodded, leading Shane through the city. Taking him through his apartment and up the elevator. He lead him into his room, which was a digital masterpiece. A computer needs paradise. “Do you uh. Want popcorn or something? I can also show you this wicked program I’ve been working on.” ---- Shane's eyes wandered around Dexter's room in awe, and he was impressed with the technological setup he had going on. Of course, Shane wasn't much of a technology guy, but he knew just barely enough to know that Dexter had some seriously good stuff. "Wow, this is...impressive," he commented, setting his umbrella off to the side and taking his jacket off. He wondered if Dexter lived here alone. Judging from the looks of it, the answer was probably a yes. "Oh, uh, thanks. Popcorn would be great. What kind of program is it? I don't really know much about computer stuff, but if you wanna show me I can follow along." At the least, he could understand the explanation behind these kinds of things...hopefully. ---- Dexter smiled, a rare sight. “Awesome. Take a seat on one of the beanbag chairs. Behind them was a strange panel of sorts. Dexter whipped out his phone and pressed a few keys, and soon he gestured for Shane to open the panel behind his beanbag chair, which would reveal freshly popped popcorn. Dex grabbed one of his laptops, and crashed onto the beanbag beside Shane. He opened it, logging in within a few seconds. Dexter plugged in a flash drive and plugged it in, opening up a .batx file. “Basically, it looks like a bunch of junk, this is just the raw code.” he began, trying his best to explain it to Shane. “Once it’s complete, I should be able to control anything electronic within a certain range. I can mess up so many restaurant orders this way.” he finished, obviously enthusiastic. He turned to Shane, suddenly nervous. “So uh. What do you think?” ---- Wow, it really was kinda weird to see Dexter smile. He wasn't sure if he'd ever seen this happen before. Doing as his...half-brother, that was still a weird thought, directed, he flopped onto one of the beanbags and reached behind him to slide open the panel. Damn, that was cool. He took the bag of popcorn and opened it, taking a few kernels before holding the bag out next to Dexter in case he wanted to share. Focusing on the screen, he had to admit he was already kinda lost. Coding wasn't necessarily his thing...though he did notice a few similarities here and there between the code Dexter was using and the coding that gene database codes he was familiar with used. Coding was more of a language than anything, so he wasn't necessarily shocked. "I think that's extremely cool," he replied, offering Dexter a grin. "Have you been into coding and stuff for a long time? It looks like you really know what you're doing." ---- Dexter welcome the invitation for popcorn, and he stuffed some into his mouth. “Yeah. I took a coding class when I was young and it stuck with me. Was better than hanging out with our asshat of a dad.” he responded. He set his computer aside. “So, Shane. What are you uh. Doing these days?” Dexter asked. “What are your interests?” ---- Their father. He felt himself sieze up at the mention of the man, because despite not wanting to meet him, he couldn't deny his curiosity. "What, uh... What's he like?" Shane asked quietly. "Dad, that is." He got the sense from the asshat comment that their dad was a less than desirable parent, to say the least. Maybe being given up had been better for him in the long run, after all, but in a weird way...that only made him feel sorry for Dexter. After all, it wasn't fair for Dexter to have put up with...whatever he'd had to put up with. He felt his fingers subconsciously run over the Millennium Necklace; he was considering consulting with Isis, asking her to let him see into the past, but he couldn't. Not here. Shane wasn't sure if he could trust Dexter. "Well, uh... I still love music, I still have that guitar in my dorm that I play all the time. Neighbors don't appreciate it much, though. Read a lot. Um... Oh yeah, I work in the school's library now. That's about it. I've also really started getting into biochemistry. It's an absolutely fascinating subject." ---- "Dad's a horrible person. A drunkard. Abusive." Dexter responded, unconsciously grabbing his forearm, as if it brought back bad memories. Memories of a hot iron flashed through his mind, the tears he spilt that day. He shook the thoughts aside, paying attention to Shane. "Music? That's cool. And biochem? I hear that it's a hard subject." he responded. "Hey, one more similarity. We're both good in some form of science." ---- "Oh." Now he felt bad for asking, since he hadn't intended to stir up bad memories. He could see the pain on Dexter's face, and guilt suddenly tore at him. Dexter...must have gone some through some awful things at their father's hands. "Biochem is amazing. That's what I want to study in college," he admitted. "I, uh... Wanna help in the medical field with research." Mainly, it was because he wanted to be useful to people somehow. Shane looked down at the floor for a moment, considering what he wanted to say. Deciding to just spit it out, he began, "Dex...I'm really, really sorry for what you must've gone through with our dad." He meant that genuinely. It wasn't right. "I... I wish it could've been me instead, so you wouldn't have had to endure it." ---- Dexter shook his head. "It's not your fault. I wouldn't want anyone else to have gone through that. No one deserves that." he responded, the worst of the memories fading away from his thought process. "That's cool!" Dexter suddenly exclaimed. "The whole medical field thing. I don't have the guts to be a doctor, science like that is super hard for me. I'll stick to my coding." Dexter smiled, still somewhat intrigued by Shane's whole medical dream. "So, you still into that whole Dueling thing?" ---- Just a few hours ago, he would've never expected to feel bad for Dexter. Now, though...he couldn't help but wish there was something, anything, that he could've done for Dexter. Maybe the revelation that Dexter was his brother had softened him, or maybe he was feeling something like survivor's guilt, but whatever it was stung at him ruthlessly. "You didn't deserve it, either." A smile played on his lips. He was surprised that Dexter seemed to be so interested; most people weren't. "Well, with what I plan to do I'd be more involved in researching and helping develop new medications. Biochemistry is all about the chemical interactions that take place within a living organism, and if a medication doesn't work with your biochemistry, it could be ineffective or worse. Like, uh, for example...that's why certain cancer treatments don't work for everyone." It got way more complicated than that. "Yeah, of course. How about you?" ---- "Yeah, I still Duel." he responded. "Although, I'm not the best at it." he continued. "You use HEROes, right?" ---- "I do indeed," Shane confirmed. "Elemental HEROes, to be precise. I've used them for years, just updated the deck as I got new cards. They're my favorite and my specialty; I don't think I could be quite the duelist I am without them." He'd made his biggest strides as a duelist using Elemental HEROes, and he couldn't imagine using anything else. Without the power and versatility of the HEROes, he just wouldn't be Shane Stryker. ---- "They must be pretty special to you." he responded. Dexter could kinda relate, he couldn't imagine himself without his Cyber Dragon's. They were one of the only things that had made his...childhood bearable. He absolutely loved them." ---- The blonde ran his fingers through his hair, debating whether or not he wanted to tell the story. He decided at this point, there was no reason not to. "Yeah, they are. I, uh...first got into dueling when I was a kid because of basically the only friend I'd had in my life at that point. He was an Elemental HERO user. When we were twelve, though, he died. Cancer. His parents gave his cards to me as a gift and I've stuck with Elemental HEROes ever since then, my way of keeping his memory with me." ---- Dexter was shocked. He never thought that cards could hold such importance for people. "I'm, uh...sorry for your loss, Shane." Dexter managed to say. He couldn't imagine the sorrow of losing anyone he cared about, not like he had anyone to care about in the first place. "Hey, I, uh...appreciate you coming here. I really am sorry for what I did back then." ---- Shane managed to smile. "It's okay. I still miss him, but...I've had a lot of time to move past my grief, so. He wouldn't want people to be sad forever over him, all he'd ask is to not be forgotten, and he won't be. Not as long as I'm alive." Without realizing it, he'd pulled the case containing his deck from his pocket. Out of curiosity, he took a look at the top card of the deck. Hero Signal, Ryder's favorite. Fitting. He put the cards back in his pocket. "It's okay. In a funny way, I guess I should be thanking you for what you did. Since that day, Michael and I have been together, so...at least something good came out of it." ---- Dexter smiled. "That's glad, at least something good came out of that shit I did." he responded. Dexter took off his hat, revealing hair practically identical to Shane's, but Dexter's was slightly shorter. "So, how's Academy Life treatin' ya?" ---- "Yeah. Michael's great. Him being around has been really good for me." It really was trippy how much they looked alike, him and Dexter. Shane stretched a bit. "Great, actually. You know, maybe... Maybe they'd take you back. If you wanted to try." ----